"Died, on the 26th of June, 1838, at Bybrook, Jamaica, Mrs. Letitia Cox. She outlived the oldest inhabitants in this parish for many generations. By her account, she was a grown up young woman at the time of the destruction of Port Royal, by an earthquake. She declared she never drank any thing but water during the whole of her life. She must have been upwards of ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY years old."

"An old black woman, at Holland estate, died eighteen months ago, at ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY years old. She also declared she never drank anything but water. Holland estate is the property of Mr. W. E. Gladstone, member for Newark."-Jamaica Royal Gazette.

HINDOOS AND MAHOMETANS.

"Q. You have seen, of course, the East India Company's army?

"A. Yes.

"Q. Composed of Hindoos and Mahometans, whose only beverage is water.

"A. Yes.

"Q. Is not their state of discipline superior to that of the British Army?

"A. Very, I conceive.

"Q. Are they not found to be more fit for duty, and to undertake severe marches, and execute operations, to which the English soldier is incompetent, from inebriety?

"A. Yes, I believe so."-Capt. T. H. Davis, Rep. on Drunk., p. 180.

THE ANCIENT PERSIANS, WATER DRINKERS.

Zenophon, speaking of their mode of training their children, says, "the boys, under sixteen or seventeen years of

S

age, were required to take with them to the place of instruction, for their food, bread, with a sort of herb, much in use, to eat with it; and a cup to drink in, that if any were thirsty they might take from the river.'

The young men, until twenty-seven years of age, were restricted to the same diet. And the historian remarks, that, "if any one think that they eat without pleasure, when they have this herb only for food, with their bread, and that they drink without pleasure, when they drink water, let him recollect, how pleasant it is to one, who is hungry, to eat plain cake or bread; and how pleasant to one, who is thirsty, to drink water."

When Cyrus was addressing the commanders of the army, which he led to the assistance of his uncle Cyaxares, against the Assyrians, and their allies, we find him saying, "You can use hunger to relish your food, as others do the daintiest meats; you, even with more ease than lions, can bear the drinking of plain water, and you carry within your minds the noblest, and most warlike qualities in the world." -Cyrop. 1 Lib.

After a victory, Cyrus requested the Medes to send him half the bread that had been made, but to send neither meat with it, nor any thing to drink; adding, "for of these we have enough with us already provided." But what Cyrus meant was, that the meat they had with their bread was hunger, and "their drink was the water of a stream that ran by."—Cyrop. 3 Lib.

It should not be forgotten, that it was by these water drinking Persians, that the wine-drinking Assyrians were eventually conquered.

"Water is the strongest digester, and the best vehicle to our nourishment, being both the finest fluid, and the most

powerful dissolvent in nature, and it is the ordinary drink of the far greater part of the human race." "The robust and valiant heroes of antiquity were water drinkers."Butler on the Feasts, Fasts, &c., of the Cath. Church; London, 1774.

"The commander of a British merchantman was carried into Algiers, and for nine months compelled to work, from four in the morning till four in the evening, on one loaf of bread, made of the black wheat of Africa, and the vegetable locust, with water for his drink. He became very thin, but enjoyed perfect health."-Dr. Farre, Rep. on Drunk., p. 103.

"For nine and thirty years I have never swallowed one glass of wine, or of ardent spirits. Up to the time of my leaving England, for the Mediterranean, I had been accustomed to drink a little beer at dinner, but finding the taste of it bitter, at my return, I put the glass down upon the table, without swallowing the contents, and have never since drank one drop of fermented liquors."

"I was born at Walton Hall, near Wakefield, in the county of York, some five and fifty years ago; this tells me that I am no chicken. But were I asked, how I feel with respect to the approaches of old age, I should quote Dryden's translation of the description which the Roman poet gives us of Charon.

'He seemed in years, yet in his years were seen

A vernal vigour, and autumnal green.'

In fact, I feel as though I were not more than thirty years old. I am quite free from all rheumatic pains; and am so supple in the joints, that I can climb a tree with the utmost facility.”—Autobiography of C. Walton, Esq., a great traveller and naturalist."

"The English prisoners made by Tippoo Saib, though kept upon a scanty pittance of bread and water, found themselves in better health than before; and some of them were cured, during their captivity, of liver complaints, of long and severe duration."-Curiosities of Med. Exp., by Dr. Millingen, 1837.

"The more simply life is supported, and the less stimulus we use the better."

"He is happy who considers water as his best and only drink."-Dr. Paris.

General Jackson, of North America, being asked, if soldiers needed ardent spirits? replied, that "he had observed, in arduous duty, and severe cold, that those performed the one, and endured the other, the best, who drank only water."

"Water liquifies and concocts our food, better than any fermented liquor whatever."-Dr. Barnard, Hist. of Cold Bathing, p. 440.

"If people would but accustom themselves to drink water, they would be more free from many diseases, such as tremblings, palsies, apoplexies, giddiness, pains in the head, gout, stone, dropsy, rheumatism, piles, and such like; which diseases are most common among them that drink strong drinks, and which water, generally, would prevent."-Dr. Pratt, Treatise of Mineral Waters.

"Pure water is the fittest drink for all ages and temperaments; and of all the productions of nature and art, comes the nearest to that universal remedy, so much sought after by mankind, but never, hitherto, discovered."Hoffman.

"When men contented themselves with water, they had more health and strength; and, at this day, those who drink nothing but water are more healthy, and live longer than those who drink strong liquors, which raise the heat of the stomach to excess, whereas water keeps it in due temper. Such whose blood is inflamed live not so long as those who are of a cooler temper; a hot blood being commonly the cause of flushes, rheums, ill-digestion, pains in the limbs, head-ache, dimness of the sight, and especially, of hysteric vapours."-Dr. Duncan, Treatise on Hot Liquors.

"I feed sweetly on water and bread-those sweet and easy provisions of the body, and I defy the pleasures of costly provisions."-Epicurus.

"Water drinkers are temperate in their actions, prudent, and ingenious. They are safe from those diseases which affect the head, such as apoplexies, palsies, pain, blindness, deafness, gout, convulsions, trembling, foetor of the mouth, and of the whole body."

"Water resists putrefaction; and cools burning heat and thirsts; and after dinner helps digestion. If the virtues of cold water were seriously considered, all persons would value it as a great medicine, in preventing the stone, asthma, and hysteric fits; and to the use of this children ought to be bred up from their cradles."-Sir John Floyer, Treatise of Cold Baths, 5th edit., p. 109.